


Baby Diary - Seventh Month - Mr. Kitty

by mistressterably



Series: No rest for the wicked [22]
Category: The Thick of It (TV)
Genre: Cute Kids, Domestic Fluff, F/M, kids and cats
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-12-01 01:17:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11475567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mistressterably/pseuds/mistressterably





	Baby Diary - Seventh Month - Mr. Kitty

‘It’s a nice warm day out, girls.’ Dani was clearing off the breakfast dishes. ‘Mia why don’t you go ask daddy if he’d want to sit outside with us?’

‘Can Alec come outside and play too?’ Mia asked as she set her empty bowl on the counter. 

‘Check with daddy. If Alec isn’t falling asleep then yes.’

‘I wanna ask!’ Gracie jumped from her chair. 

‘We’ll both ask.’ Mia said, grabbing her sister’s hand. ‘Together.’

‘Okay.’ Gracie smiled and skipped beside Mia as they headed upstairs to the nursery.

‘Daddy.’ Mia spoke softly as they entered the nursery.

‘Hi, lass. Little lady.’ Malcolm was finishing putting a fresh diaper on Alastair. 

‘Daddy, bring Alec out to play.’ Gracie asked as she peered at her brother on the changing table. Her hand went out to tickle Alastair’s foot and made him giggle happily. ‘Please!’

‘Are you two going outside to play then?’

‘Mommy says we can. We want Alec to play outside too.’ Mia smiled up at Malcolm. ‘Can I help dress Alec?’

‘Course you can. If we’re going out to play, how about his navy blue trousers and that blue stripey top.’

‘Yeah! He’s cute in that.’ Gracie agreed.

Mia got the clothes out of the dresser and brought them over. Malcolm got the little top on the wriggling boy and snapped closed the buttons on the one shoulder. Mia helped get the trousers on her baby brother. 

‘I got his socks!’ Gracie held up a small pair of socks. 

‘Perfect,’ Mia said and thanked her sister. 

‘Gracie, can you get his shoes for us?’ Malcolm asked, overseeing the production.

‘Yeah!’ Gracie found a little pair of brown sneaker type shoes and brought them over. ‘Can I put them on Alec?’

‘Sure, little lady.’ 

With a little help from Mia, Gracie got the little shoes on her brother.

‘There we go, lad.’ Malcolm lifted the boy up, admiring him. ‘What do you think girls? Isn’t he handsome?’

‘He’s cute.’ Gracie declared.

‘I think he’s handsome.’ Mia agreed with Malcolm. ‘He’s getting bigger isn’t he?’

‘He is. He’s growing up like gangbusters.’ 

‘I wanna go out and play.’ Gracie said, ‘Can we go now?’

‘We’ll go outside and play now,’ Malcolm settled Alastair in his arm and ruffled Gracie’s hair, getting a swat from her. ‘Go on, little lady. Lead the way for us.’

That’s all it took to get the little girl scampering off and down the stairs. Mia slipped her hand into Malcolm’s to walk with him. ‘I was reading that book I got mommy at Christmas.’

‘Were you now? Get anything out of it to help with your baby brother?’

‘Not really. Alec doesn’t act like the boys in the book.’ Mia was disappointed.

‘Alec is still a baby. He’ll grow up and then he may be more like the boys in the book.’ Malcolm assured his daughter. ’The little lad can’t even crawl yet.’

‘He’s trying all the time.’ 

‘And that’s how he’s going to learn. Ah, love,’ Malcolm and Mia walked through the kitchen and Malcolm took a moment to kiss Dani. ‘You going to join us out in the yard?’

‘In a few minutes, I want to get some of the laundry going. Think you can manage all three on your own?’

‘With the lass helping, of course.’ Malcolm grinned and managed a second quick kiss. ‘Don’t be too long. Right, lass. Can you get the door for me?’

‘Sure, daddy.’ Mia went ahead and opened the door. Gracie was already in the yard on the swing.   
‘Daddy! Let Alec swing too!’

Malcolm headed to the swing set and got Alec settled into the baby swing that he’d installed recently. Alastair laughed happily and slapped his hands against the safety bar in front of him. As he gently pushed the young boy in the swing, Mia got behind Gracie to push her. They played on the swings until Dani came outside. 

‘Can we play ball?’ Mia asked.

‘Go get the ball then, lass.’ Malcolm walked over to Dani and handed Alastair to her. The little boy was quite happy to cuddle against his mother after the fun of the swings. Dani sat in a lawn chair, hugging Alastair to watch the two girls do their best to kick the football along the ground, avoiding the long legs of their father to try and score against him. 

Gracie snuck around him to the right while Mia barreled into Malcolm to hug him. ‘I scored! I scored!’ Gracie danced about madly cheering.

‘Unfair. You two cheated. Dani? They fouled me, didn’t they?’

‘You’re asking me about a foul in a football match?’ Dani laughed. ‘Silly man. Girls, keep doing what you’re doing.’

‘Mia tackled me illegally,’ Malcolm protested and got only a chuckle from Dani and then Mia darted away to get hold of the ball again. ‘Offside. Clearly offside!’ Gracie laughed and managed to sneak between Malcolm’s legs to catch up to her sister. They again managed to score as Malcolm turned to face them, hands on his hips and scowling. ‘You’re not supposed to do that, little lady.’

‘But it worked!’ Gracie beamed. ‘We’ll let you score next.’

‘No we aren’t!’ Mia laughed and dodged past him with the ball and circled back around. ‘Ready, daddy?’

‘No scoring on me this time, lass.’ Malcolm bent, ready to challenge his daughter’s attempt to score against him. Mia kicked the ball forward and tried to kick it around him to the right and Malcolm lunged for it but instead of connecting with the ball he wound up lunging forward, missing the ball entirely and sprawling on the ground. Gracie sat on top of his back, holding him down. Mia laughed and joined her sister sitting on their father’s legs.. ‘Dani, a bit of help?’

‘Sure, Malcolm.’ Dani got up and sat Alastair on the small of Malcolm’s back. ‘There you go, all three of them.’

Malcolm craned his head back a bit to look at Dani.’That’s not the help I was thinking of.’

‘I don’t know. It looks perfect to me.’ Dani smiled. 

‘Meow.’ The neighbour’s cat sauntered into the yard, popping out from under the fence between their yards. The long grass brushed the cat’s stomach as he made his way tentatively towards his favourite girls. Gracie was quick to slide off of Malcolm’s back to lie down by the cat. 

‘Mr. Kitty.’ She began to pet the cat. The cat was more than happy to rub up against Gracie, purring happily. Mia came over too and sat cross legged by them. The cat automatically rubbed up against her knees then walked onto her lap to curl up there. Gracie plopped down across from Mia to pet the cat’s back as it happily kneaded against Mia’s leg, the purring got louder.

Malcolm set Alastair on the grass on the boy’s tummy to look at the girls and the cat. Malcolm lay on his side, wagging a finger at Alastair to try and get the boy to move towards him. ‘No, no eating grass.’ Malcolm had to quickly stop Alastair stuffing the grass he had pulled up with his little fist. 

‘Meow.’ The cat got up from Mia’s lap to walk around Gracie and bop his head against her. 

Alastair babbled happily. ‘Ba ba.’ He lifted a hand up to try and reach the cat. Curious, the cat walked over to the boy, its tail swishing back and forth slowly . ‘Ba!’ Alastair made a lunge towards the cat to grab the swishing tail but missed. The boy made a noise of frustration and tried to drag himself forward a bit. Malcolm gave his son a little bit of encouragement with a nudge on his backside.

‘Mr. Kitty is going to get away if you don’t crawl to him.’ Malcolm said. The cat still wouldn’t come near to Malcolm and they were happy with that arrangement. 

The little boy got more frustrated when the cat walked back over to Mia and Gracie for more pets from them. 

‘Ba!’ Alastair pushed himself up with his hands and made a short lunge forward, dragging his feet a bit. 

‘Almost there, lad.’ Malcolm turned to lay flat on his stomach beside his son. The boy was too focused on trying to reach the cat. 

‘Ba!’ Alastair got frustrated and wailed. The cat sat on his haunches, casually cleaning a paw. 

‘Come on, Alec. You can do it!’ Gracie called to her brother. ‘Mr. Kitty wants you to come to him.’

The little boy tried again, fixated on the cat. He managed to lift himself up with his arms and got his legs up too but when he tried to go forward his legs didn’t coordinate properly and he tumbled forward, little fists banging on the ground. 

‘You can do it, Alec.’ Mia encouraged the boy as well. ‘Up you get. Come on.’

Again the boy managed to get his upper body up off the ground and one knee up to inch forward as his other knee just dragged a little. Malcolm reached over and helped his son get his other knee up and in line. The boy managed an awkward crawl forward for two ‘steps’ before his arms gave up and he wailed again in his frustration. The cat came over and rubbed its head on Alastair’s forehead before trying to clean the boy’s temple. 

‘There you go, lad. You made it to Mr. Kitty.’ Malcolm rubbed the boy’s back and smiled as the boy wriggled himself up into almost a seated position. 

Mr. Kitty, happy to have a third friend in the yard, bopped the boy in the chin with his head to earn a grab around his neck by the boy’s little arms. 

‘Ba!’ Alastair beamed at his sisters as he hugged the cat.


End file.
